February 18, 2020
The Philadelphia Eagles badly need help at cornerback, and a quality cornerback has reportedly become available for a trade. As such, the Eagles are going to be connected to said cornerback, which in this case is the Detroit Lions' Darius Slay, a player that (a) a Jim Schwartz-led team drafted in 2013, and (b) the Eagles were rumored to have interest in at the 2019 trade deadline.
Slay only has one year left on his contract, and it appears that he wants to be the highest-paid corner in the NFL. The Lions would clearly like to trade Slay, and they were sure to tell Adam Schefter that they are "adamant" about his value.
Lions have spoken with multiple teams about a potential trade for Pro Bowl CB Darius Slay, per sources. Any team that trades for Slay would have to compensate Detroit and Slay with a new deal. Other teams believe Slay will be traded this off-season, but Lions adamant on value.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 17, 2020
Slay has been something of an underrated corner in the NFL for some time, having played on a bad Lions team that doesn't often get national exposure. It was pointed out that he has been to three straight Pro Bowls, and he leads NFL with 82 pass breakups since 2015.
Notes on Darius Slay:
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) February 17, 2020
* Leads NFL with 82 PBU since 2015
* One of just 2 CB named to 3 straight Pro Bowls (Jalen Ramsey)
* 29 years old
* Under contract through 2020 (due $10M)
* Excellent man-to-man coverage skills
A blue-chip player.
While the above is certainly true, Slay was probably undeserving of a Pro Bowl nod in 2019, as he battled a hamstring injury, and had a down year. Additionally, Slay's pass breakup and interception numbers are down drastically since a monster year in 2017, when he led the NFL with 8 picks and 26 PBUs.
Unfortunately for the Lions, Slay's value was at its highest at the trade deadline last year. Now, other teams around the league have plenty of other options, including a decent cornerback group in free agency that includes Byron Jones, Chris Harris, Jimmy Smith, Logan Ryan, Bradley Roby, Trae Waynes, James Bradbury, and others, none of whom will require draft pick compensation to acquire.
The best the Lions can reasonably hope for is a Day 2 pick, which the Eagles would be unwise to part with, in my view, as Howie Roseman started off his end-of-season press conference by rightly noting that the Eagles had to get younger.
"Going forward we need to infuse youth in this team," he said. "We have 10 draft picks. We think we're going to have 10 draft picks in this draft and we're excited about that. When we look at what the young players did for our team down the stretch, it's a great tribute to them; it's a great tribute to our coaching staff and it’s a great tribute to our developmental program that we take a lot of pride in."
So to recap, should the Eagles trade for Slay:
Factoring in age and the cost to acquire, if I'm the Eagles and I'm looking at my menu of options, there are other more appealing cornerbacks to pursue.
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